#my eight-year-old nephew made me a musical instrument

[elpsycongruent]

my present matches my dress!

[7r0773r]

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Inside Concord Missionary Baptist church, I loved the attention I got for being a fat black boy from the older black women: they were the only women on earth who called my fatness fineness. I felt flirted with, and like most fat black boys, when flirted with, I fell in love. I loved the organ’s bended notes, the aftertaste of the grape juice, the fans steadily moving through the humidity, the anticipation of somebody catching the Holy Ghost, the lawd-have-mercy claps after the little big-head boy who couldn’t read so well was forced to read a greeting to the congregation.

But as much as I loved parts of church, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t love the holy word coming from the pulpit. The voices carrying the word were slick and sure of themselves in ways I didn’t believe. The word at Concord was always carried by the mouths of the reverend, deacons, or other visiting preachers who acted like they knew my grandmama and her friends better than they did.

Older black women in the church made up the majority of the audience. But their voices and words were only heard during songs, in ad-libbed responses to the preacher’s word and during church announcements. While Grandmama and everyone else amen’d and well’d their way through shiny hollow sermons, I just sat there, usually at the end of the pew, sucking my teeth, feeling superhot, super bored, and really resentful because Grandmama and her friends never told the sorry-ass preachers to shut up and sit down somewhere.

My problem with church was I knew what could have been. Every other Wednesday, the older women of the church had something called Home Mission: they would meet at alternate houses, and bring their best food, their Bibles, notebooks, and their testimonies. There was no instrumental music at Home Mission, but those women, Grandmama’s friends, used their lives, their mo(u)rning songs, and their Bibles as primary texts to boast, confess, and critique their way into tearful silence every single time.

I didn’t understand hell, partially because I didn’t believe any place could be hotter than Mississippi in August. But I understood feeling good. I did not feel good at Concord Missionary Baptist church. I felt good watching Grandmama and her friends love each other during Home Mission. (Be, pp. 54-55)

***

You were on your way back from Hawaii with Malachi Hunter while LaThon Simmons and I sat in the middle of a white eighth-grade classroom, in a white Catholic school, filled with white folk we didn't even know. These white folk watched us toss black vocabulary words, a dull butter knife, and pink grapefruit slices back and forth until it was time for us to go home.

We were new eighth graders at St. Richard Catholic School in Jackson, Mississippi, because Holy Family, the poor all-black Catholic school we attended most of our lives, closed unexpectedly due to lack of funding. All four of the black girls from Holy Family were placed in one homeroom at St. Richard. All three of us black boys from Holy Family were placed in another. Unlike at Holy Family, where we could wear what we wanted, at St. Richard, students had to wear khaki or blue pants or skirts and light blue, white, or pink shirts.

LaThon, who we both thought looked just like a slew-footed K-Ci from Jodeci, and I sat in the back of homeroom the first day of school doing what we always did: we intentionally used and misused last year's vocabulary words while LaThon cut up his pink grapefruit with his greasy, dull butter knife. "These white folk know here on discount," he told me, "but they don't even know."

"You right," I told him. "These white folk don't even know that you an ol’ grapefruit-by the-pound-eating ass nigga. Give me some grapefruit. Don’t be parsimonious with it, either."

"Nigga, you don’t eat grapefruits,” LaThon said. “Matter of fact, tell me one thing you eat that don't got butter in it. Ol’ churning-your-own-butter-ass dying laughing. "Plus, you act like I got grapefruits gal-low up in here. I got one grapefruit."

Seth Donald, a white boy with two first names, looked like a dustier Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, but with braces. Seth spent the first few minutes of the first day of school silent-farting and turning his eyelids inside out. He asked both of us what "gal-low" meant.

"It's like galore," I told him, and looked at LaThon. "Like grapefruits galore."

LaThon sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes. "Seth, whatever your last name is, first of all, your first name ends with two f's from now on, and your new name is Seff six-two because you five-four but you got the head of a nigga we know who six-two." LaThon tapped me on the forearm. "Don't he got a head like S. Slawter?" I nodded up and down as LaThon shifted and looked right in Seff 6'2's eyes. "Every thang about y’all is erroneous. Every. Thang. This that black abundance. Y'all don’t even know."

LaThon's favorite vocab word in seventh grade was "abundance," but I'd never heard him throw "black" and "that" in front of it until we got to St. Richard.

While LaThon was cutting his half into smaller slices, he looked at me and said Seth six-two and them didn't know about the slicing "shhhtyle" he used.

Right as I dapped LaThon up, Ms. Reeves, our white homeroom teacher, pointed at LaThon and me. Ms. Reeves looked like a much older version of Wendy from the Wendy restaurants. We looked at each other, shook our heads, and kept cutting our grapefruit slices. “Put the knife away, LaThon, she said. *Put it down. Now!"

"Mee-guh," we said to each other. "Meager," the opposite of LaThon's favorite word, was my favorite word at the end of seventh grade. We used different pronunciations of meager to describe people, places, things, and shhhtyles that were at least eight levels less than nothing. "Mee-guh," I told her again, and pulled out my raggedy Trapper Keeper. "Mee-guh." 

While Ms. Reeves was still talking, I wrote "#1 tape of #1 group?" on a note and passed it to LaThon. He leaned over and wrote, "EPMD and Strictly Business." I wrote. #1 girl you wanna marry?" He wrote, "Spinderalla + Tootie." I wrote, "#1 white person who don't even know?" LaThon looked down at his new red and gray Air Maxes, then up at the ceiling. Finally, he shook his head and wrote, "Ms. Reeves + Ronald Reagan. It's a tie. With they meager ass."

I balled up the note and put it in my too-tight khakis while Ms. Reeves kept talking to us the way you told me white folk would talk to us if we weren't perfect, the way I saw white women at the mall and police talk to you whether you'd broken the law or not.

I understood how Ms. Reeves had every reason in her world to think I was a sweaty, red-eyed underachiever who drank half a Mason jar of box wine before coming to school. That's almost exactly who I was. But LaThon was as close to abundant as an eighth grader could be. (Meager, pp. 65-67)

***

When I came back from playing ball at the Greenbelt rec center during spring break, you made me read back over sentences I’d written in my notebooks back in Mississippi. You said I asked a lot of questions about what I saw and heard in my writing, but because I didn’t reread the questions I didn’t push myself to different answers. You said a good question always trumps an average answer.

“The most important part of writing, and really life,” you said, “is revision.” (Contraction, p. 85)

***

When I got in the house, you brought your belt across my neck. Earlier in the day, Ms. Andrews, one of your friends who was a teacher at my school, told you Coach Shitzler said I was in a sexual relationship with a white girl. You heard this “news” on the same day you watched a gang of white police officers try to kill a chained black man they later claimed had “Hulk-like” strength.

I did not know Rodney King, but I could tell by how he wiggled, rolled, and ran he was not a Hulk. Hulks did not beg for mercy. Hulks did not shuffle from ass whuppings. Hulks had no memories, no mamas. I wondered what niggers and police were to a Hulk. I wondered if all sixteen-year-old Americans had a little Hulk in them. 

I knew, or maybe I accepted, for the first time no matter what anyone did to me, I would never beg anyone for mercy. I would always recover. There was physically nothing anyone could do to me to take my heart, other than kill me. You, Grandmama, and I had that same Hulk in our chest. We would always recover. At some point during my beating, I just stopped fighting and I let you hit me. I did not scream, I did not yell. I barely breathed. I took my shirt off without you telling me. I let you beat me across my back. It was the only beating in my life where watching you beat me as hard as you could felt good. (Hulk, pp. 96-97)

***

I listened to the Coup and read everything James Baldwin had written that summer. I learned you haven’t read anything if you’ve only read something once or twice. Reading things more than twice was the reader version of revision. I read The Fire Next Time over and over again. I wondered how it would read differently had the entire book, and not just the first section, been written to, and for, Baldwin’s nephew. I wondered what, and how, Baldwin would have written to his niece. I wondered about the purpose of warning white folk about the coming fire. Mostly, I wondered what black writers weren’t writing when we spent so much creative energy begging white folk to change. (Already, pp. 143-44)

***

I’d never given much weight to the idea of present black fathers saving black boys. Most of the black boys I grew up with had present black fathers in the home. Sure, some of those fathers taught my friends how to be tough. But I can’t think of one who encouraged his son to be emotionally or even bodily expressive of joy, fear, and love. I respected my father but I never felt that I needed him or any other man in the house to show me how to become a loving man. I knew, truth be told, that a present American man would likely teach me how to be a present American man. And I couldn’t imagine how those teachings would have made me healthier or more generous. (Seat Belts, p. 200)

[teacherintransition]

When was the Last Time Everything was Purely Joyous?

August 31 was the two year anniversary of my son’s wedding; it was the last massive gathering of all parts of our family joined in celebration…

… then, the world went ever so incredibly mad.

I’ve been writing this series of articles for sixteen months; and for the most part the topics have dealt with the struggles of adjusting to retirement after thirty years of teaching. On occasion, I’ve written about anecdotal nonsense for fun, but several things I’ve avoided discussing are politics and Covid-19. These matters are quite delicate in our collective psyche and can create a sense of hostility that I try to avoid with people and within my mind. These topics have a place in this week’s article, but only on the periphery creating a setting for the observations. This was not planned as my last two articles have been stream of consciousness pieces with humorous undertones. The birth of this article stemmed from a phone conversation I had late last night with my brother, Brian, swinging under the tree with my bulldog Chunky by my side. What a setting for the muse to help me see the significance of August, 31.

Brendan Joel Rich married Michaela Ackerman on August 31, 2019 near Lake Conroe. The venue was beautiful and every detail accounted for in the planning. Both Brendan and Michaela were dedicated, successful public servants: Brendan a empathetic coach and Michaela, a compassionate RN. Lifelong friends and family made up both of their wedding parties. The service was beautiful… Annie, my wife’s mother, somewhat frail but truly focused was escorted to her seat of honor on the arm of her first grandson, my oldest son Joshua Keith Rich. Annie was soon to turn ninety two and had never missed any event of importance that involved her grandchildren: Josh, Kyle, Erik, Rachel and Brendan. The pride she radiated at being escorted by her thirty five year old grandson and seeing the smile of Brendan and Erik brought a flow of tears from those congregated for this wedding. It was a magical event…storybook…it couldn’t have been more emotional… more perfect.

The food was marvelous and the open bar delighted any epicurean. The music was loud and like Dick Clark used to remark on American Bandstand, you could definitely dance to it. Brendan’s older brother Josh and his oldest friend, Josh Keith gave sublime speeches that drew out sentiment deep from all of our hearts. My nephew Matt Rich was with his fiancé and their little boy Asher. This young man was “Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and Fame” rolled into an eighteen month old body and stole the show. As expected a trove of pictures were taken of the various branches and new additions to our family. Everyone was dressed immaculately and the photos were magnificent. One in particular had my wife and sons joined with the newly wed Mrs. Michaela Rich, Annie, Joshua’s fiancé, Brian and his wife Mishelle, his sons Cory and Matt with Rachel and Asher. It was an image of pure joy. After the photo, I texted the phone photo from my phone to the only cousin of the Rich family I can tolerate: Heather Rich-Matteson…she was my crazy doppelgänger. She replied that it looked like we were having a blast and wished she were there. I wished she was there too. For in that brief fleeting moment, everything was, dare I say it, …perfect.

The world will humble you.

In a few months, the year 2020 began and the family pictures of countless families would undergo tragic pain and loss. In late February, our world began to turn upside down and would continue to tumble for the foreseeable future. My cousin Heather, forty four years old, a fantastic mother, a loving wife passed away unexpectedly as we were heading to, ironically enough, the wedding of a family friend. I don’t intend to mark every horrible loss that took place in the interim from Brendan and Michaela’s wedding and the current moment; suffice it to say there are loved ones missing from those pictures. Annie is no longer with us, my beautiful nephew Matt is gone, Heather is gone, Donnel has passed away and numerous other friends, colleagues, nieces, brothers and on and on have succumbed to the virulent plague wreaking havoc in our world. Every family has a similar story to tell and on it goes.

The world will go on.

There have been many dark moments since that day. Perspective is a pliable, subjective instrument that can alter moments of peace into turmoil and moments of turmoil into visions of hope. Nothing is static… time goes forward and you go with it or get left. Brendan and Michaela celebrated and good wishes were sent. Everyone made acutely and painfully aware over the last two years that life and joy are fleeting things. It’s all a matter of perspective…and sitting there, talking with my brother, I chose to change my perspective. My brother lost his son in February earlier this year…he lost a part of his soul. Science teaches us that there is a balance that occurs in natural things. What balanced such a overwhelming loss? Brian knows that his brother and his brother’s family will be there for him in any way to fill the gap. He knows that his immediate family is strong beyond measure. His daughter, Lauren leads and lends strength to her dad. His son Cory embarked on a soul searching journey to bring healing not just for himself but for others. Matthew gave him a parting gift; a beautiful granddaughter name Lynnox who looks like Matt. His coworkers held him up and perhaps in ways he never knew before, he wasn’t alone.

My wife Kim, her sister Nancy and brother Frank lost their true north in June of ‘20 when Annie passed quietly in her sleep. Kim had Annie for fifty three years, Nancy for sixty eight years and Frank for seventy years. That is an incredibly long time to have your mother… a mother who exuded love at every turn. For awhile, they were lost like I had never seen them. The wound healed and emotional scar tissue took its place. There would be no vacuum here; these three somewhat aged group of siblings formed bonds that can never be broken. They love each other more that I thought possible and it’s beautiful. Siddhatta Gotama Buddha teaches us the “First Noble Rule” is that in this life we will experience loss and pain…this is the unavoidable rule. Luckily for us, the Buddha moved on to the “Second Noble Rule.” This rule teaches us that we are to joyfully participate in this world of loss and pain. “Joyfully?“ This will require some serious perspective and realize that all things are in a constant state of flux. In this state of flux or as William Cullen Bryant called it a “Flood of Years,” the memories are in constant connection with new experiences.

So, how do I celebrate a joyous anniversary amidst incalculable loss? We joyfully acknowledge our new found strength; our newly discovered bonds with family and friends and we acknowledge that the world can take from you but in balance…will give in good measure. My youngest son has overcome obstacles and fallen in love with a lovely girl. My nephew Cory embarked on a journey of healing. My brother has a new granddaughter as mentioned earlier and my wife and I have a new grandson…Greyson. Nancy, my sister in law, is enjoying the pure pleasure of being a “Nana” for the first time. Lauren is off to California; Brendan and Michaela just bought their first home. Things are good two years later; but we know that won’t last. We joyfully know that, together, we can endure tragedy and know the healing flood will refresh us. Hang on … it’s a helluva ride.

[lamourthermidorienne]

Saint-Just Ch. 3 part 2 by Bernard Vinot

Educators and Courses

The courses were given by 2 or 3 Fathers and 9 or 10 Confraters (monks who didn’t make any vows of Priest.). Among them there was Confrater Lacoste, who was with Saint-Just at his 6ème*. There was Confrater Menneville, who’d taught him for another three years consecutively afterward. The beginning of his study at the College was brilliant. According to the Book (note: it didn’t mention what book), at the end of the 5ème*, he was committed the first prize about foreign language translation, and the second prize about reflection essay. At his Seconde*  he was taught by Confrater Pourpre, and before his years of philosophy** (1785-1786), his rhetoric was taught by Father Monier.

Saint-Nicolas College provided two choices for the students who’s in their years of philosophy - either “physics” or “logic”. Many of the students preferred the first option, since the College had an excellent and well-maintained laboratory. Saint-Just probably also made the same decision - later he would pride himself of the knowledge from this discipline. In his library we could find a treatise about Eléments d'arithmétique, which matched the program of this course. If as assumed, that he had followed the class of physicist Pruneau, then he certainly couldn’t have known Confrater Léon Silvy, who was a fervent supporter of new ideas and subsequently public prosecutor at the Laon Revolutionary Court. This man first came to the College in 1787, after the departure of Saint-Just. Did Saint-Just, as what Barère claimed in his memoir, meet with Daunon***? This man had taught logic in Soissons from 1783 to 1784. But Saint-Just was at that time only in his Seconde. In any case, they were certainly around each other, the college was formed as a big family.

Saint-Just’s teachers were young. When he attended their classes, Lacoste was 20, Menneville 23, Pourpre 24, Pruneau 30. Father Monier, the oldest among them was 32-year-old. These young men were almost all from the middle bourgeoisie, with very different backgrounds. They were sons of doctors, merchants, rentiers, officers or military. Around the future member of Convention, there seemed to be only those of outstanding. Daunou won the first prize in a competition organized by the Academy of Nîmes, in which he advocated for La Harpe, who had supported Enlightenment. Menneville would become the superior of L’Académie Royale de Juilly, the most remarkable one of the Orders (note: L’Ordre, not sure what Ordre it’s referring). Two competent directors led the College in the decade of 1780 - 1790: Pierre François Peyré, and then Sulpice de Molier, who came to Soissons in 1784, just as Saint-Just rose to the rhetoric class. However, the personage who left the strongest memory to Saint-Nicolas was the supervisor of education, François-Marcel Pruneau.

Father Pruneau had joined the Congregation of Oratoriens relatively late - it was at his age of 24. He had been ordained a priest when he was only 26-year-old. In 1780 (when Saint-Just entered his 5ème), he was appointed as a physics teacher in Soissons. From guiding and supervising the education, he found from 1781 a vocation at which he was excelling and to which he kept faithful until the dissolution of the Congregation. His nephew deposited in the Archive of the Oratoire a handwriting regulation, on whose flyleaf he noted: “This book was written by my uncle F.M. Pruneau (...) He endured the exile for the sake of his faith, for which he would go to the scaffold as if to his own bed. Additionally, when he had been forced to emigrate, he became the supervisor of education at Soissons College, where he provided significant supports through his respected capability and his educational skills. ” The satisfaction of the inspecting father in 1783 then was understandable: “We are edified by the spirit of peace and harmony, which, we can see, is ruling our community. We thank Heaven for the regularity which we have been able to establish here.” Between 1783 and 1787, the reputation of the institution led to an increase in the number of its boarders from 26 to 59, which reached the maximum of its capacity.

Some of his educational principles were not lack of style. Father Preuneau relied more on kindness than harshness, and would rather have excessively goodness than overly rigor. He avoid punishing students under the pressure of anger or passion, “which would not prevent me from speaking strict words when necessary.” - yet the words were without hurting. There wasn’t corporal punishment at all, and expulsion from the class should not be allowed without the notification from supervisors or superiors. The children should be educated regardless of financial circumstances or social status, as if they were all “Angels of God”. Father Monier advocated from his side: “With kindness, reason, and especially sentiment, we must be able to guide them well.”

In the newly constructed buildings which were “made of the curved stones”, 150 students were divided into eight divisions. They sat on the benches without desks, listened to their teachers who usually leaned on the lectern. For certain tasks, the so-called décurions would help them. These students would record the names of the absentee, enter the grades, remind the ten-people-group - for which they were responsible - of resting, paying attention, and reciting the lessons. They would report to the supervisors about “all the wrongdoings of the class, whether the teacher is there or not.'' The tasks would be done in a constant competition, both within the ten-people-group, and among the groups of one class. All the movements would be accompanied with the sounds of drums. Le lycée napoléonien would resume this custom later.

Throughout the 18th century, Soissons provided the education of sciences during the students’ years of philosophy. It included mathematics, physics, chemistry and natural sciences, In this city, the memory of Father Privat de Molières, who had been a friend of Malebranche and a member of the Academy of Sciences, was still vivid. Father Monier emphasized, that mathematics would train “the memory and the judgement”, and physics would not been diluted in the metaphysics. A donation was assigned for “the maintenance of the cabinet of physics”, and the library, which expanded every year, received in 1782 “three volumes from Sigand Delafon about Electricity…, and five volumes from Buffon”.

But literature remained the core of the courses, based on Latin and ancient history (mainly Roman), with rhetoric as its coronation: This would make well preparation for juridical or ecclesiastical careers. As it would also contribute to the art of political eloquence and convincing, we could conclude that Saint-Just, who would be outstanding on the tribune, had been influenced. In his Fragment d’Institutions républicaines, however, he advised against following the paths of traditional rhetoric. Rather, he gave the highest value to "laconism", to those who “know how to say a sublime word in danger, and who, by a wise harangue, save the fatherland, remind people of their manners, and unite the soldiers.” Saint-Just knew how to convince, it was true, yet it was thanks to an art which overthrew many academics and belonged only to him.

The Roman history seemed to have strongly impressed him even more, especially when the great, admired thinkers, like Fénélon and chiefly Montesquieu, elongated the echo. People taught a particular, first of all, edifying history of Rome: “One should” - like what Rollin, the rector of the University of Paris, had declared in his preliminary speech about education at the beginning of the century - “oppose to the torrent of the false principles and bad examples, which almost grasped everyone, the principles and examples of those great men of ancient times.” In fact, the good examples were only limited to a few heroic deeds and some admirable men. They to history were like the chosen pieces to literature. People intended to illustrating Christian values by using the virtuous works about those heroes of the pagan world. This was originated from Plutarch. When we saw how abundantly the revolutionaries drew from this, we would doubt if all of them penetrated the artificiality of the antiquity which the school had presented to them. The spiritual heritage of mythical Greece and Rome delighted young Saint-Just, and permeated him forever. “If he had known nothing about Sparta, he would still have been Saint-Just.” Georges Lefebvre wrote, “But one may assume that these models helped to contribute his severity and hardness.” Unfortunately, for that generation, the first modern translation of Thucydides' <History of the Peloponnesian War>, a work of political reflection and lucidity, appeared earliest in 1795.

Artistic activities completed the education in Soissons: “One should learn drawing”, Father Monier advised, “for in the long run of life, this ability would always be the source of a pure pleasure and a beneficial distraction for young men. One should learn dancing. This exercise would train your body, and one day, would make you elegance.” He also hoped that the children could “at least have a sense of music, if only to feel them and perceive their beauties.” They should learn singing, “if they have the voices”, or playing an instrument, preferably piano, because “the flute would make the chest tired”. In fact, Saint-Just did drawing and showed a talent which was admired by his surroundings, as evidenced by “a teenager’s head”- a school exercise which was donated to the museum of Carnavalet by his family. He also played music, his flageolet was conserved by the museum of Blérancourt.

Theater plays took place regularly in Saint-Nicolas, although the higher authority of Congregation had regarded them as a waste of time. The local authority and parents, however, placed great value to such public performances, which brought honors to the children. It was very likely that this tradition, which would still there in 1791, had been maintained in Saint-Just’s time. Here we may find the origin of his preference of Theater, as shown in his teenage years, as well as later, his very sure sense of declamation and its effective pauses.

Notes:

* It seems like 6ème is a lower grade compared with 5ème. Seconde is higher than both 6ème et 5ème. 

Quote from searching:

6ème – 11 to 12 years old

5ème – 12 to 13 years old

4ème – 13 to 14 years old

3ème – 14 to 15 years old

Seconde (CAP, BEP) – 15 to 16 years old

Première (CAP, BEP) – 16 to 17 years old

Terminale (BAC) – 17 to 18 years old

I guess Première & Terminale means so-called years of philosophy in the biography

** Corresponding to high school graduation

*** Pierre Daunou: Priest, teacher for students’ philosophy years, later moderate member of Convention. Chief of the French archive administration in 1804.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

His flageolet was in the museum of Blérancourt, REALLY???

[steven-blanco]

1-200!!! I can't choose just a few so answer them all please (unless there's ones you don't want to answer!)

200: My crush’s name is: I have two crushes. His name is Franco and her name’s Montse.199: I was born in: January 30th198: I am really: Funny197: My cellphone company is: Telmex196: My eye color is: Hazel195: My shoe size is: I think in USA would be 8 or 8 ½194: My ring size is: No clue193: My height is: 5’ 11"192: I am allergic to: Dust191: My 1st car was: None190: My 1st job was: I’ve did a couple things for money but I don’t consider them as jobs.189: Last book you read: It’s actually a play. The White Devil by John Webster.188: My bed is: my husband and wife.187: My pet: are my life. 186: My best friend: I have a lot of best friends tbh.185: My favorite shampoo is: Pantene184: Xbox or ps3: PS3183: Piggy banks are: really useful 182: In my pockets: my phone181: On my calendar: Waiting for fall.180: Marriage is: kinda risky but beautiful.179: Spongebob can: just end?178: My mom: Chaotic neutral.177: The last three songs I bought were? 1. Love of the Loveless by The Eels.2. Italian Leather Sofa by Cake.3. Seven Hours With A Backseat Driver by Gotye.176: Last YouTube video watched: Smiles and Tears - Ocarina cover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kDSKLzmHhg175: How many cousins do you have? Jeez, a lot. 174: Do you have any siblings? Yep. I’m the little one.173: Are your parents divorced? Wait. 172: Are you taller than your mom? Yes.171: Do you play an instrument? I don’t, sadly.170: What did you do yesterday? Not hoping I was dead. It was a good day.[ I Believe In ]169: Love at first sight: Yes.168: Luck: Of course.167: Fate: Sure.166: Yourself: Indeed.165: Aliens: Sí.164: Heaven: I hope. 163: Hell: I guess.162: God: Yes.161: Horoscopes: Kinda.160: Soul mates: Absolutely159: Ghosts: I live with one.158: Gay Marriage: Sure.157: War: Combo breaker! No. 156: Orbs: I have a few photos of them.  155: Magic: 100% Yes!

[ This or That ]154: Hugs or Kisses: Kisses.153: Drunk or High: High.152: Phone or Online: Phone.151: Red heads or Black haired: Red heads ❤️150: Blondes or Brunettes: I don’t care.149: Hot or cold: Cold.148: Summer or winter: Winter.147: Autumn or Spring: Autumn 146: Chocolate or vanilla: I love both!145: Night or Day: Night.144: Oranges or Apples: Oranges.143: Curly or Straight hair: I love my curly hair. 142: McDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds.141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: Don’t do this to me!140: Mac or PC: PC. 139: Flip flops or high heals: High heals are fun but flip flops are comfortable. I’ll take flip flops.138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: Sweet and poor. 137: Coke or Pepsi: Coke.136: Hillary or Obama: Obama.135: Burried or cremated: Cremated.134: Singing or Dancing: What!? I can’t decide.133: Coach or Chanel: This is so american.132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: This is so american x2.131: Small town or Big city: Big city.130: Wal-Mart or Target: We don’t have Target in Mexico. Wal-Mart. 129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: I can tolerate Ben Stiller a little bit more. 128: Manicure or Pedicure: I really need a manicure right now. 127: East Coast or West Coast: East Coast?…126: Your Birthday or Christmas: Christmas doesn’t make me feel old.125: Chocolate or Flowers: Flowers. 124: Disney or Six Flags: I’ve only been in Six Flags.123: Yankees or Red Sox: Yankees, I guess. [ Here’s What I Think About ]122: War: Without sense.121: George Bush: Did 9/11120: Gay Marriage: Still waiting for being legal in my whole country. Sadly, it’s never gonna happen.119: The presidential election: Do we still think democracy it’s real? 118: Abortion: Agree. But just as a final resource. 117: MySpace: Never had one. 116: Reality TV: Some are entertained but when people always talks about them and nothing else it really annoys me. 115: Parents: I love mine. 114: Back stabbers: Watch out.113: Ebay: Useful but watch out again.112: Facebook: It was fun when I was 14. Now I barely post something.111: Work: Do something that you love. Then it’s not work.110: My Neighbors: Someones are really hot. 109: Gas Prices: I’m going to walk all my life.108: Designer Clothes: I wish I can fit on that.107: College: Good experience until now.106: Sports: I love doing sports.105: My family: Fucked up in a humorous way.104: The future: I’m terrified tbh.[ Last time I ]103: Hugged someone: 10 minutes ago.102: Last time you ate: I just had a snack.101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: Yesterday.100: Cried in front of someone: Two months ago.99: Went to a movie theater: Four months ago.98: Took a vacation: Can’t remember.97: Swam in a pool: Two years ago.96: Changed a diaper: Never.95: Got my nails done: Like two years ago too. 94: Went to a wedding: Can’t remember. It’s been a while.93: Broke a bone: I’m not sure if I was in 1st or 2nd grade.92: Got a peircing: Never.91: Broke the law: Four months ago.90: Texted: 20 minutes ago. [ MISC ]89: Who makes you laugh the most: Rick and Morty88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: Security.87: The last movie I saw: I re-watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: Being an actor.85: The thing im not looking forward to: Being rich or famous. 84: People call me: Steven, Svenson, Child face. 83: The most difficult thing to do is: Staying quiet.82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: No.81: My zodiac sign is: Aquarius.80: The first person i talked to today was: My dad.79: First time you had a crush: I was eight. 78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: Myself.77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: My acting teacher. I love him. 76: Right now I am talking to: My nephews. 75: What are you going to do when you grow up: Have a lot of fun.74: I have/will get a job: when I finish college.73: Tomorrow: I’m going to relax. My fridays are always cool. 72: Today: I’m going to suffer. I have a lot of things to do and here I’m… procrastinating. As always. 71: Next Summer: Wasting my time without guilt.70: Next Weekend: A play to do. 69: I have these pets: Dogs.68: The worst sound in the world: Alarms.67: The person that makes me cry the most is: Selma fucking Jezkova. 66: People that make you happy: Family and friends. 65: Last time I cried: Last week.64: My friends are: fun hoes.63: My computer is: dead. I’ve being using my brothers Mac. 62: My School: Is ok.61: My Car: Doesn’t exist.60: I lose all respect for people who: doesn’t respect other people.59: The movie I cried at was: Only Yesterday.58: Your hair color is: Dark brown.57: TV shows you watch: Mostly cartoons. 56: Favorite web site: Youtube.55: Your dream vacation: Anywhere with a pool.54: The worst pain I was ever in was: when I broke my left foot.53: How do you like your steak cooked: Well done.52: My room is: Always clean.51: My favorite celebrity is: Hayden Panettiere 50: Where would you like to be: 2001.49: Do you want children: Yes.48: Ever been in love: Yes.47: Who’s your best friend: I have a lot. It will be pretty unfair if I miss someone.46: More guy friends or girl friends: All my life I’ve been surrounded by women.45: One thing that makes you feel great is: working out.44: One person that you wish you could see right now: My friend Luck. 43: Do you have a 5 year plan: Kinda. 42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: Yes. 41: Have you pre-named your children: OF COURSE. 40: Last person I got mad at: a classmate. He can be an irresponsable pain in the ass.39: I would like to move to: Canada or Japan. 38: I wish I was a professional: musician.[ My Favorites ]37: Candy: Pecositas.36: Vehicle: None. 35: President: None.34: State visited: My family visited a lot of states when I was a baby. I can’t remember anything. 33: Cellphone provider: I don’t care.32: Athlete: I don’t know any. 31: Actor: Gary Oldman.30: Actress: Susan Sarandon.29: Singer: Emilíana Torrini. 28: Band: Gorillaz.27: Clothing store: None.26: Grocery store: A market. 25: TV show: Daria. 24: Movie: The Fifth Element.23: Website: YouTube.22: Animal: Fox.21: Theme park: Only know Six Flags.20: Holiday: Halloween/Día de Muertos.19: Sport to watch: Golf.18: Sport to play: Baseball.17: Magazine: Quo.16: Book: Momo.15: Day of the week: Saturday.14: Beach: Meh.13: Concert attended: Someone take me to a concert, because I’ve never attended any. 12: Thing to cook: Any dessert. 11: Food: It’s really fun cooking japanese food. 10: Restaurant: A mexican one. 9: Radio station: Any with 80′s music.8: Yankee candle scent: What?7: Perfume: Any.6: Flower: Sunflower5: Color: Blue4: Talk show host: Stephen Colbert.3: Comedian: Wanda Sykes, Anjelah Johnson and Bo Burnham.2: Dog breed: Pug or Schnauzer.1: Did you answer all these truthfully? I think I did. 

[thebuckybrigade]

Ok I was tagged by @asphodelsandpomegranates so here we go!!

Nicknames: Bella, StellBell, and Skella(my nephew can’t pronounce my name and it’s the most amazingly adorable thing to hear his little three year old voice call me something that sounds like a Viking name.)

Zodiac: Leo ♌️

Height: 5’6”

Last movie I saw: I honestly cannot remember lmao some stupid Netflix movie with Nicholas cage my dad was watching...yea it was bad

Last thing I googled: WMATA—it’s the local train and bus service and I wanted to see if the snow we got had caused any delays to the metro

Favorite Musician: I thought this one would be harder to answer, but yea, it’s totally Sam Smith.

Song stuck in my head: Fire on fire by Sam Smith. Actually my whole playlist for writing Gradence is revolving through my head lol check it out here: Then, Now

Other blogs: yes, my original one is Adoctoraday and my cooking one which I haven’t updated and will probably delete is thecatanadthecook

Do I get asks: yes! I love them! Always send me asks! Or funny memes. Or pictures of your pets. Or art work that you’ve made. Really, just send me anything and it’ll make me happy!

Following: ummmm like 200 or 300 blogs I think. It’s a wild mix of fandom, politics/advocacy, and space stuff

Amount of sleep: on average? 6.5-7 hours....what I’d like to get? Ummm a siesta every afternoon and then like 8 hours at night lmao

Lucky number: 24

What I’m wearing: grey leggings, blue asymmetrical sweater and blue Rothy’s. It’s a work day in the middle of a shutdown and post snow storm so it’s a little more casual than normal

Dream job: Politician! I plan on running for office in the next five to eight years, so keep an eye out for my campaign! #socialistdemocrat

Dream trip: yikes...everywhere? Lol literally I want to go and explore everywhere on the earth before climate change fucks everything up and we all start living in some mad max-esque dystopia.

Favorite food: pizza....but I love to cook and eat and try new things!

Play an instrument: I used to be a violinist in an orchestra when I was younger, but I’ve long since stopped playing. But that’s where my love of classics music came from!!

Languages: English. I used to be fluent in Spanish and am now a passable speaker. I know like three phrases in Italian, French and Portuguese, but I’m in no way able to communicate extensively lol

Favorite songs: AHHHHH TOO MANY!!

Classical: fly or nuvole bianche by ludovico einaudi (really anything by him I adore)

Pop: Fire on Fire, Sam Smith. Safe haven, Ruth B.

Idk: Illabye by tipper

Random fact: I once dressed up as Hamlet and gave his “to be or not to be” speech in a British accent, for my English class.

Describe yourself with aesthetics: jewel tone velvet comforter, silk robe and muddy tennis sneakers by the door, protein shakes and pizza, dark curly hair and bright wide smile, Harry Potter T-shirts and too big cardigans, sleek black cat hiding in the curtains, notebooks filled with ideas and too many word documents to count, laughter and something simmering in the kitchen, red wine and cheese.

Tagging: @iswearidonthavedaddyissues @sweetsorcery @knu18 @totally-magneato @jollyrancher87

Tag Game

Okay, I was tagged by @a-lioness-in-winter to do this. Thanks hun. So, let’s get nosy, shall we? 

Nickames: Kat, Kitty, Kitten (by my ex), Rebel without a Cause (by my late grandad), 

Zodiac: Virgo 

Height: 5′0 or 5′1 

Last movie  I saw: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (for the billionth time) 

Last Thing I Googled: Schwarzkopf hair dye (debating whether to go emerald green or rainbow) 

Favourite Musician: Lady Gaga 

Song Stuck in My Head: Our Lady of the Underground from Hadestown Musical 

Other blogs: nope, just this one 

Do I get Asks: Just one so far, but I won’t say no to more 

Following: 30 people I think, I need to go any find more people 

Amount of Sleep: God knows!

Lucky Number: Don’t have one 

What I’m Wearing: Pennywise T-shirt and Paris Pj bottoms. PJ day! 

Dream Job: Author/Novelist. I’ve got a few books series ideas on the way 

Dream Trip: Paris….again. 

Favourite Food: Chocolate cake! 

Play an Instrument: I used to play guitar when I was in school but it’s been too long and I can’t remember how now. 

Languages: English is my mother tongue. I know some French but it’s a bit rusty. I know a little bit of Spanish, German and Greek. 

Favourite Songs: Satisfied (Hamilton) Easy Come, Easy Go (Daveed Diggs & Rafael Casal) Come to Mama (Lady Gaga) 

Random fact: When I was five, my older brother jammed my middle finger in a car door and ruined the nail completely. It grew back in time but it’s completely different to my right one. The nail’s never been the same since. 

Describe yourself with aesthetics: piles of books, ink well, high heel shoes, diamond jewelry, railway shed, multi-coloured nail polishes, ball gown dresses, cats, masquerade masks and French flag, honey being poured into a tea cup

Taggings: @clown-bait, @headoverhiddles, @thebuckybrigade, @terrazure, @waltzinginlondonwithchristoph, @iamthecreatorofmyownstory, @ace-trash-with-no-soul @audpaw, @true-horror-queen, @agent221b, @strangemaximoff, @thebuckybrigade, @a-schuylerr, @movieexpert1978, @b-lindspotting, 

[fmrcheerios]

1 to 100. ALL QUESTIONS

Hi gurlll! Thanks for doing this! xD  Unusual Asks

Spotify, SoundCloud, or Pandora? Spotify, SoundCloud and 8tracks. I am not familiar with Pandora though. Maybe I am going to check it out someday =). 

is your room messy or clean?At the moment clean, but most of the time messy. But I don’t mind =). 

what color are your eyes?Brown. 

do you like your name? why?I like that my real name (Flora) is the queen of plants and that my name that everybody knows (Floor) is a normal Dutch name and has another definition in English. 

what is your relationship status? Complicated. 

describe your personality in 3 words or lessSmileyface, foodlover and dork. 

what color hair do you have?Brown/black. Sometimes chestnut. 

what kind of car do you drive? color?I drive in the car of my parents which is a red Hyundai Atos. 

where do you shop?For clothes mostly H&M, Bershka and sometimes a vintage store. For supplies at my own store (Kruidvat) or Flying Tiger which I love the most!

how would you describe your style?I would call myself a parttime hipster. I combinate old clothes (mostly from my grandma and mother) with fashion at the moment. Most of time I don’t like the trends of now but when the trend is out I like it and wear it. Such as high waisted jeans. I love to wear that!

favorite social media accountTumblr and Instagram. 

what size bed do you have? Double bed.

any siblings?Yes, one brother. 

if you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? why?In the rice fields or the mountains. I like the nature and atomsphere. 

favorite snapchat filter?  The face swap! I always like it to swap faces with @cosmoderus​ and @fieldhouses​ xD! 

favorite makeup brand(s)I like Rimmel and Maybeline lipstick and mascara. 

how many times a week do you shower?Every day. 

favorite tv show?At the moment Jane the Virgin and Broad City of course

shoe size?38, 39 or 40. 

how tall are you?I am 1.68. 

sandals or sneakers? Depends but most of the time sneakers. 

do you go to the gym? No, I just run once or twice a week. 

describe your dream dateWe go for a nice dinner (where we don’t mind that you eat like a beast haha), jamming and dancing like monkeys. That would be nice

how much money do you have in your wallet at the moment?Ten cent. 

what color socks are you wearing? White with grey. 

how many pillows do you sleep with?Two. 

do you have a job? what do you do? I work parttime in a drugstore. 

how many friends do you have? A few. 

whats the worst thing you have ever done? Racing with my grandmother in the wheelchair and she accidentally fell.This happened when I was eight or something… 

whats your favorite candle scent? Pumpkin. 

3 favorite boy names Joey, Andy and Melvin. 

3 favorite girl namesJoan, Ike and Marcella. 

favorite actor? Tom Hiddleston. 

favorite actress? Bridget Regan. 

who is your celebrity crush?I had a major crush on Daniel Radcliffe (and lately is slightly back because I re-watched Harry Potter). 

favorite movie?Run Fatboy, run! 

do you read a lot? whats your favorite book? Sometimes. I like the books of Roald Dahl. 

money or brains?If he is funny, kind and knows what he wants, I am happy. 

do you have a nickname? what is it? Yes. Floozie, Flo, Florrowaps, Flora, Sjenkie, Jut and dude. 

how many times have you been to the hospital?None. 

top 10 favorite songs* Say my name - Odesza * September - Earth Wind and Fire* African Mailman - The Rebel Remix* Hear my train coming - Jimi Hendrix * Heard it through the grapevine - Marvin Gaye* Stole the show - Kygo * Oh Happy Days - Aretha Franklin * This Girl - Kungs * Alright - Kaytranada edit * Happy - Pharell Williams 

do you take any medications daily? Nope. 

what is your skin type? (oily, dry, etc)Dry. 

what is your biggest fear?Afraid of losing myself. 

how many kids do you want? I always said four but two are also good enough for me. 

whats your go to hair style?Loose or a bun. 

what type of house do you live in? (big, small, etc) Normal terraced house. 

who is your role model? My parents. 

what was the last compliment you received?You remind me of myself. Full of joy. - Josje van Zanden (vocal therapist). 

what was the last text you sent?“Girl, I am coming home.I am sitting in the bus. ”  

how old were you when you found out santa wasn’t real?Is santa not real??! 

what is your dream car? CAMPER/VAN!!!

opinion on smoking?Everyone should do what they want. Just not smoke in my face. 

do you go to college? Yep. Still 1,5 year to go (If everything goes well). 

what is your dream job? Vocal and musician coach. 

would you rather live in rural areas or the suburbs? Both will be nice. As long as I am happy and do what I want. 

do you take shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotels? I think so. My mother always took the shampoo and conditioners back in tha days. 

do you have freckles? Nope, but I would love to have them. 

do you smile for pictures?Yes, always. 

how many pictures do you have on your phone? 2.000 (+). 

have you ever peed in the woods? Hahaha yes near the water… 

do you still watch cartoons? Yes of course! 

do you prefer chicken nuggets from Wendy’s or McDonalds?I never ate at Wendy’s because we don’t have that here in The Netherlands. I just like chicken nuggets in general. 

Favorite dipping sauce? Garlic sauce!

what do you wear to bed? Comfy pyjamas but lately my owl onesie. 

have you ever won a spelling bee?Nope. 

what are your hobbies?Playing and discovering music, running, cooking, drawing and chilling. 

can you draw? Yes, can you? 

do you play an instrument?Yes I play the piano I also learning to play the ukulela and the guitar. 

what was the last concert you saw? In November 2016 I went to Mura Masa and Nao. @oldvictoria​ thanks for the question lady! 

tea or coffee?Both. 

Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts?We don’t have a Dunkin Donuts yet! But I love donutssss! DONUTSSS

do you want to get married?Of course. 

what is your crush’s first and last initial?C.W. 

are you going to change your last name when you get married? I think so. 

what color looks best on you? Red, grey, black and wine-red. 

do you miss anyone right now? My beloved ones. 

do you sleep with your door open or closed?Door closed. 

do you believe in ghosts?Sometimes. 

what is your biggest pet peeve? When they are whining about food in the morning when I just am awake. 

last person you called`My assistant manager. 

favorite ice cream flavor? Strawberry. 

regular oreos or golden oreos? Regular. 

chocolate or rainbow sprinkles? Both. 

what shirt are you wearing? My selfmade ‘Yas Queen’ shirt! 

what is your phone background?A picture of my nephew and me together. 

are you outgoing or shy?Sometimes shy but mostly outgoing. 

do you like it when people play with your hair?Yes. 

do you like your neighbors? Yes and no. One couple I like the other one not that much. 

do you wash your face? at night? in the morning?I wash my face every morning and sometimes in the night. 

have you ever been high? Yes. 

have you ever been drunk? Yes. 

last thing you ate? Pasta with spinach made by @cosmoderus​ 

favorite lyrics right now‘Shall we danceOr keep on mopin’?Shall we danceAnd walk on air?Shall we give in to despair?Or shall we dance with never a care?Life is shortWe’re growing olderDon’t you be an also-ranYou’d better dance, little ladyDance, little manDance whenever you can’ - Ella Fitzgerald 

summer or winter? Winter. 

day or night? Both. 

dark, milk, or white chocolate?Milk chocolate with hazelnuts. 

favorite month?September. 

what is your zodiac signVirgo. 

who was the last person you cried in front of? My parents. 

THANKS GURL! Lobbiessss

[alicethruthelookingglass]

“If I were king,” the trailblazing mathematician Émilie du Châtelet wrote in the 1730s, “I would reform an abuse that cuts out, so to speak, half of humanity. I would allow women to share in all the rights of humanity, and most of all those of the mind.” It took a century for her fantasy to take on the first glimmer of reality.

In 1835, a quarter century before Maria Mitchell earned her place as America’s first woman astronomer and led the way for women in science, Caroline Herschel(March 16, 1750–January 9, 1848) became the world’s first professional woman astronomer. Together with the Scottish mathematician Mary Somerville (for whom the word “scientist” had been coined a year earlier), 85-year-old Herschel became the first woman elected Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society for the eight comets she had discovered in her prolific life as a “sweeper” of the stars.

Herschel’s monumental legacy and her ninety-eight years of earthly perseverance — a lifespan that exceeded the era’s average life expectancy by decades and stretched through the French Revolution, the Civil War, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the invention of the railroad and the telegraph — are all the more impressive against the backdrop of the inordinate hardships she had to overcome from a young age.

Of her ten siblings, four died in early childhood. At the age of eleven, Caroline contracted typhus fever, which nearly killed her. She would later recount the aftermath of the attack in Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel (public library):

For several months after I was obliged to mount the stairs on my hands and feet like an infant; but here I will remark that from that time to this present day [at age 71] I do not remember ever to have spent a whole day in bed.

The illness damaged her left eye and stunted her growth. For the remainder of her life, this tiny woman of four feet and three inches swept the skies with her twenty-foot Newtonian telescope and one good eye.

But many more obstacles stood between her and astronomy, perhaps most crucially her mother — an illiterate woman who was determined to make Caroline useful in domestic duties and was adamant that the girl shouldn’t be distracted with education. It was the father, an admirer of astronomy, who secretly taught her music and science when his wife was “either in good humour or out of the way,” and who one frosty night took young Caroline out to make her “acquainted with several of the most beautiful constellations [and] a comet which was then visible.”

He eventually arranged for her to be tutored by a young woman whose parents lived in the same Hanover house as the Herschels. To receive her lessons, Caroline would rise before dawn, meet her tutor at daybreak, and study until 7 in the morning, at which point she would have to resume her duties as the household’s Cinderella. But this faint promise of scholarship barely lasted a few months — tuberculosis claimed her young tutor’s life.

The summer after Caroline’s sixteenth birthday, her father had a stroke, which paralyzed the entire left side of his body. He died several months later, leaving the young woman in stupefied grief. To alleviate her mourning, her brothers William and Alexander suggested that she join them in Bath, England, where William, to whom she was deeply and abidingly attached, had taken a position as an organist at a local church. William beseeched and beseeched, but the mother was unyielding. In a bout of desperation, Caroline knitted two years’ worth of stockings for the family to stave them off in her absence. Mrs. Herschel finally relented and Caroline set out for England.

Caroline joined William with the intention of training as a singer so that she could accompany him in concerts. But although she became an accomplished vocalist, her loyalty to William, at that point and ever after, was so great that when she was invited to perform at a prestigious festival, she declined on the grounds that she never wanted to sing in concerts where her brother wasn’t the conductor.

It was in Bath that William grew increasingly enamored with the cosmos, until he decided to limit his work as a music teacher and focus on his newfound love of astronomy. Too poor to afford instruments and too proud to ask for loans, he taught himself to make mirrors and build telescopes, and Caroline became his steadfast assistant in celestial observations.

She recounts:

I was obliged to read to him whilst he was at the turning lathe, or polishing mirrors, Don Quixote, Arabian Nights’ Entertainment, the novels of Sterne, Fielding, &c.; serving tea and supper without interrupting the work with which he was engaged … and sometimes lending a hand. I became in time as useful a member of the workshop as a boy might be to his master in the first year of his apprenticeship.

[…]

When I found that a hand was sometimes wanted when any particular measures were to be made with the lamp micrometer, &c., or a fire to be kept up, or a dish of coffee necessary during a long night’s watching, I undertook with pleasure what others might have thought a hardship.

William enlisted her assistance “to run the clocks, write down a memorandum, fetch and carry instruments, or measure the ground with poles” — a line Adrienne Rich would later incorporate into her tribute to Caroline. When one of his telescope mirrors had to be cast in a mould of loam made from horse dung, Caroline faithfully pounded vast quantities of manure in a mortar and spent hours sifting it through a fine sieve.

When she learned to copy star catalogs — painstaking work that consumed countless days — she started to notice gaps in the data. Feeling compelled to remedy them, she began making her own observations. In the summer of 1782, at the age of thirty-two, Herschel embarked on her own catalog and made her first independent discoveries the following year — a nebula missing from the famous Messier catalog and, crucially, the dwarf elliptical galaxy now known as Messier 110, a companion to the Andromeda Galaxy.

Herschel not only devoted her life to astronomy but nearly lost it to the passion for observation. In a diary entry from the summer of her first discoveries, she recounts a most improbable incident, at once gory and glorious in its attestation to her selfless heroism in the name of science. She writes on July 8, 1783, shortly after she and her brother built a new Newtonian telescope:

My brother began his series of sweeps when the instrument was yet in a very unfinished state, and my feelings were not very comfortable when every moment I was alarmed by a crack or fall, knowing him to be elevated fifteen feet or more on a temporary cross-beam instead of a safe gallery. The ladders had not even their braces at the bottom; and one night, in a very high wind, he had hardly touched the ground before the whole apparatus came down. Some labouring men were called up to help in extricating the mirror, which was fortunately uninjured, but much work was cut out for carpenters next day.

That my fears of danger and accidents were not wholly imaginary, I had an unlucky proof on the night of the 31st December. The evening had been cloudy, but about ten o’clock a few stars became visible, and in the greatest hurry all was got ready for observing. My brother, at the front of the telescope, directed me to make some alteration in the lateral motion, which was done by machinery, on which the point of support of the tube and mirror rested. At each end of the machine or trough was an iron hook, such as butchers use for hanging their joints upon, and having to run in the dark on ground covered a foot deep with melting snow, I fell on one of these hooks, which entered my right leg above the knee. My brother’s call, “Make haste!” I could only answer by a pitiful cry, “I am hooked!” He and the workmen were instantly with me, but they could not lift me without leaving nearly two ounces of my flesh behind. The workman’s wife was called, but was afraid to do anything, and I was obliged to be my own surgeon by applying aquabusade and tying a kerchief about it for some days, till Dr. Lind, hearing of my accident, brought me ointment and lint, and told me how to use them.

That same Dr. Lind remarked that “if a soldier had met with such a hurt he would have been entitled to six weeks’ nursing in a hospital,” but Herschel soldiered on with complete composure and continued making observations despite her injury. She concludes the diary entry with charming matter-of-factliness that bespeaks her superhuman devotion to science:

To make observations with such large machinery, where all around is in darkness, is not unattended with danger, especially when personal safety is the last thing with which the mind is occupied.

The heroic incident was memorialized nearly two centuries later in a portion of Alfred Noyes’s lengthy poem “Sir John Herschel Remembers,” from his 1922 collection Watchers of the Sky. The poem’s protagonist — the great astronomer and inventor John Herschel, son of William, nephew of Caroline — remembers how his aunt’s intrepid devotion to astronomy inspired his own:

He saw her in mid-winter, hurrying out, A slim shawled figure through the drifted snow, To help him; saw her fall with a stifled cry, Gashing herself upon that buried hook, And struggling up, out of the blood-stained drift, To greet him with a smile. “For any soldier, This wound,” the surgeon muttered, “would have meant Six weeks in hospital.” Not six days for her! “I am glad these nights were cloudy, and we lost So little,” was all she said.